Advanced Television

USA v Belgium sets digital viewing record

July 3, 2014

Tuesday’s World Cup match between USA and Belgium was another ratings hit for ESPN and Univision in the US. The game netted an average 16,491,000 viewers making it the nation’s second most-viewed men’s football broadcast of all time, according to Nielsen and ESPN data.

Only last month’s USA v Portugal match, which ran on a weekend, drew more viewers with 18,220,000.

Viewership smashed records on mobile platforms as well: The WatchESPN streaming app attracted a record-breaking averaged 3.5 million unique viewers while Univision broke a digital viewership record with 1.8 million viewers, according to Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated.

An estimated 21.6 million people tuned in for the, with combined viewership from ESPN, online streaming and Univision (5.1 million viewers).

The total number of actual viewers is estimated to be much higher, thanks to massive viewing parties around the nation, like the Chicago event at Soldier Field that drew roughly 28,000 fans.

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